Online Learning Environment

Time to complete this course:30 minutes

Date of publication:Feb 2016

Reviewed and updated:January 2018

The term “overdiagnosis” is being widely used in the medical community. It refers to the concept that in pursuit of health, we are making people sick. Discussions on this topic are happening internationally – recent titles have included “Too much medicine” (BMJ) “Avoiding Avoidable Care” (USA) and “Less is more” (USA).

Overdiagnosis occurs when asymptomatic people are diagnosed with a disease that will not cause them to experience symptoms or early death.